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Crews rush to recover commuter plane found crashed on Alaska sea ice before expected snow and wind – The Associated Press Crews rush to recover commuter plane found crashed on Alaska sea ice before expected snow and wind – The Associated Press Crews rush to recover commuter plane found crashed on Alaska sea ice before expected snow and wind The Associated PressMissing Bering Air Plane Crashed in Alaska, 10 Dead Aviation A2zVictim’s names emerging in fatal plane ****** near Nome Alaska’s News SourceCoast Guard: No survivors in ****** of Alaska plane carrying 10 people. Here’s what we know. Yahoo! Voices Source link #Crews #rush #recover #commuter #plane #crashed #Alaska #sea #ice #expected #snow #wind #Press Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

WWE 2K25 Did One Thing Right After Awful Superstars in 2K24 WWE 2K25 Did One Thing Right After Awful Superstars in 2K24 WWE 2K games have been a rollercoaster of excitement and disappointment over the years, with 2K24 leaving many fans frustrated by its lackluster superstar models. But it looks like WWE 2K25, set to release on March 14th, might just be the game to change that. The models in the latest game are looking way better than before. | Image Credit: Visual Concepts Early reviews show that the superstars are looking better than ever, delivering a level of realism that has gotten fans buzzing with excitement. With the release date on the horizon, anticipation is also building. It seems this year, the developers might have finally nailed it. WWE 2K25 is taking a step in the right direction For those who experienced WWE 2K24, many players were left frustrated with the game’s graphical quality, particularly with the superstar models. The likenesses of some of WWE’s top talents were noticeably off, and fans quickly voiced their dissatisfaction. Many argued that the character models looked outdated, with some even resembling generic versions of their real-life counterparts. But it looks like the developers have finally listened to fans’ calls and 2K25 seems to have delivered a better product. One of the most exciting improvements in WWE 2K25 is the drastic upgrade to the superstar models. It appears that the developers have gone the extra mile to rescan and refine the in-game characters, and the difference is remarkable. From the more refined facial expressions to overall better body models, 2K25 has successfully captured the likeness of WWE’s top stars. After seeing the early reviews and especially the models, players are excited for the game’s release. I think this is the most drastic difference ive seen in a model. This is ridiculous #WWE2K25 pic.twitter.com/MEA4WeB1z3 — ACKY (@Acky142) February 6, 2025 Not the only one. pic.twitter.com/yJGHOqTlXV — Latif (@Latif9451962982) February 6, 2025 Wow — Antoine Parrish (@themoe85) February 7, 2025 Upgrades so insane — Dollarhyme the PokeDoc (@dollarhyme) February 7, 2025 While it’s too early to say whether 2K25 will live up to its potential in all areas, the improvements in superstar models alone have given fans hope. After the mixed reception to 2K24, it’s clear that the developers took the feedback seriously. Excitement building for the release Players are excited to get their hands on the game. | Image Credit: Visual Concepts With the release date of March 14th rapidly approaching, anticipation for WWE 2K25 is at an all-time high. The drastic visual upgrades have reignited excitement in the fanbase, and many are eager to jump back into the ring with better-looking and more lifelike versions of their favorite superstars. The game’s initial reception, along with the enhanced visuals, is setting it up to be a potential fan favorite. One of the standout features is the revamped crowd reactions. Fans will now react to character actions in real-time, whether it’s a devastating finisher, a high-flying maneuver, or even a dramatic pinfall. The energy in the arena will shift with the action, adding an extra layer of realism to each bout. The game also introduces smarter AI, making opponents more unpredictable and challenging. Whether it’s reversing pinfalls, dodging attacks, or countering moves at the perfect moment, the AI’s improvements ensure that every match feels fresh and exciting. These changes promise to make the game a much more dynamic and fun experience for players. In the end, all eyes are now on WWE 2K25 to see if it can deliver on its promise of better gameplay, mechanics, and overall experience. But for now, the upgrade to the superstar models is already a major win. Source link #WWE #2K25 #Awful #Superstarsin2K24 Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Collapses galore as WA and Redbacks crumble in Shield Collapses galore as WA and Redbacks crumble in Shield Bowlers have feasted as a whopping 20 wickets fell on the opening day of the Sheffield Shield clash between Western Australia and South Australia at the WACA Ground. Defending champions WA lost 8-48 as they crashed from 2-72 to be rolled for 120 on a testing wicket on Saturday. In reply, the Redbacks were bowled out for 124, with WA paceman Brody Couch (4-33) the chief destroyer. WA opener Sam Fanning (49) got the home side off to a solid start, but he played a lone hand as Liam Scott (3-10 off 8.4 overs), Jordan Buckingham (3-35) and Brendan Doggett (2-24) feasted for the SA. Joel Curtis (15) and Ashton Turner (12) were the only other WA players apart from Fanning to make it into double figures. Any thoughts of South Australia being able to build a big first-innings lead quickly evaporated, despite the best efforts of Jason Sangha (45 off 81). Openers Conor McInerney (four) and Henry Hunt (15) weren’t able to stick around for an extended *******. Sangha was a steadying force for the Redbacks, but they crashed from 2-53 to 124 all out as WA’s attack wreaked havoc. Couch led the destruction, while spinner Corey Rocchiccioli (3-10) and Joel Paris (2-34) were also among the wickets. Cameron Gannon only took the one scalp, but it was a ripper of a delivery that kicked up and caught the glove of a surprised Sangha. The match shapes as crucial in the race to reach the March 26-29 final. The Redbacks (29.93 points) sit on top of the ladder with three wins and two draws from six games, while WA (23.91 points) sit fourth with two wins and two draws from six outings. Source link #Collapses #galore #Redbacks #crumble #Shield Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Wizardry Variants Daphne’s official shop is finally open, bringing discounts for everyone Wizardry Variants Daphne’s official shop is finally open, bringing discounts for everyone The official shop is now open Purchase Gems of Erin and get Gems of Org for free First-time users also get 800 Germs of Org at no cost Drecom has just announced that the official shop for Wizardry Variants Daphne is now open, offering numerous items at a discount. Starting February 7th, you can purchase Gems of Erin, the paid currency, and receive bonus Gems of Org for free. This gives you more value when stocking up on resources for your dungeon adventures. To access the shop, you’ll need to install Wizardry Variants Daphne and log in with your User ID. Any items purchased will be sent directly to your Guild Mailbox in the Adventurer’s Guild. If it’s your first time using the shop, you’ll receive 800 Gems of Org for free, and every week, you can claim an additional 50 Gems of Org at no cost. These weekly rewards reset every Monday at 00:00 JST. As the event progresses, Wizardry Variants Daphne has also reached a milestone of one million downloads, unlocking more rewards for you. To celebrate, you can collect a Class Change Guidance Certificate, as well as 2,000 Gems of Org. Alongside this, new activities, including Adventurer’s Remains and a limited-time quest, provide more ways to earn resources. Logging in daily until February 19th will also grant supplies from the Guild Tavern, while the Assassins in the Dark of Night Missions offer 10,000 gold among other bonuses. And between February 13th and 26th, you can take on dispatch requests to Dens by clearing each Den in this *******. There’s a sea of content coming your way, so be sure you’re ready to take on these new challenges. Wondering what the best characters are to clear all these quests? Here’s our Wizardry Variants Daphne tier list and reroll guide to help you out! Download Wizardry Variants Daphne now by clicking on your preferred link below. It is free-to-play with in-app purchases. Visit the official website for more information or follow the X page to stay updated on all the latest developments. Source link #Wizardry #Variants #Daphnes #official #shop #finally #open #bringing #discounts Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

3 Cloud and AI Stocks to Buy Hand Over Fist in February 3 Cloud and AI Stocks to Buy Hand Over Fist in February The cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) markets, which are linked together in myriad ways, have both flourished over the past decade. More companies transferred their data from on-premises servers toward public cloud platforms, which are more secure, scalable, and accessible across a wide range of computing platforms. As these companies store more data on these cloud platforms, more AI applications are being developed to crunch all of that information to make better data-driven decisions. According to Fortune Business Insights, the cloud computing market could still grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.5% from 2024 to 2032. Grand View Research expects the AI market to grow at a CAGR of 36.6% from 2024 to 2030. Image source: Getty Images. Plenty of tech companies are trying to capitalize on the growth of those two markets, but some of them have flimsy business models or narrow moats. So today, we’ll focus on three stronger companies that are well-positioned to profit from the growth of the cloud and AI markets: Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG), and Oracle (NYSE: ORCL). Here’s why they might be great additions to your investment portfolio this month. Microsoft was once considered a slow-growth tech giant, but its growth accelerated again over the past decade as it expanded its cloud and AI ecosystems. It transformed Azure into the world’s second-largest cloud infrastructure platform, and it invested in OpenAI to integrate the AI start-up’s popular generative AI tools into its ecosystem. It also rolled out more mobile versions of its cloud-based apps for iOS and Android devices and turned Windows into a hub for its cloud-based services. In its latest quarter, Microsoft’s total cloud revenue jumped 21% year over year and accounted for 59% of its top line. Most of that growth came from Azure, Dynamics, and its other 365 productivity apps. Its Copilot AI platform, which is powered by OpenAI’s generative AI tools, also grew rapidly as it locked in more consumers and businesses. From fiscal 2024 (which ended last June) to fiscal 2027, analysts expect Microsoft’s revenue and EPS to both grow at a CAGR of 14%. That growth should be driven by its cloud infrastructure and AI businesses, its expanding Xbox gaming division, and the accelerating growth of its enterprise-oriented cloud services in a more positive macroeconomic environment. Microsoft’s stock might not seem cheap at 31 times forward earnings, but its leadership of the cloud and AI markets might justify that higher valuation. Story Continues Datadog’s platform monitors a wide range of computing platforms and aggregates all of that diagnostic data on its unified cloud-based dashboards. That approach makes it much easier for IT professionals to diagnose potential problems. Its new Bits AI generative AI chatbot further streamlines and simplifies that process. Datadog’s business is maturing, but it turned profitable on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis in 2023. From 2023 to 2026, analysts expect Datadog’s revenue and EPS to grow at a CAGR of 23% and 77%, respectively. That growth should be driven by its customers, which generate at least $100,000 in annual recurring revenue (nearly quadrupling from 2019 to 2023), and its healthy dollar-based net retention rate, which stayed in the mid-110s in its latest quarter. Its stock might seem a bit pricey at 70 times forward adjusted earnings, but it could still have plenty of room to grow as more companies streamline their IT operations with its dashboards and AI tools. Oracle, like Microsoft, was once considered an also-ran in the tech sector. However, the database software giant reignited its growth by transforming its on-premises software into cloud-based services. It also expanded into the enterprise resource planning (ERP), healthcare IT, and cloud infrastructure markets with big acquisitions. As a result, its total cloud services revenue grew more than 20% annually over the past three fiscal years. From fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2027, analysts expect Oracle’s revenue and EPS to rise at a CAGR of 12% and 20%, respectively. That growth should be fueled by the market’s warming demand for its cloud-based database and ERP services, as well as expansion of its cloud infrastructure platform to store more data and process more AI applications. Oracle’s cloud infrastructure platform is still much smaller than Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft’s Azure, but it’s already gained big customers like Nvidia, Uber Technologies, and ByteDance’s TikTok. It’s also rolling out more tools to accelerate generative AI applications. It should also continue to expand its cloud and AI ecosystems with more acquisitions. Oracle’s stock trades at 24 times its forward adjusted earnings, which seems reasonable relative to its growth potential in the cloud and AI markets. It’s not an exciting growth stock, but it should steadily head higher over the next few years. Before you buy stock in Microsoft, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Microsoft wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $788,619!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 929% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 177% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list. Learn more » *Stock Advisor returns as of February 7, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Leo Sun has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Datadog, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 Cloud and AI Stocks to Buy Hand Over Fist in February was originally published by The Motley Fool Source link #Cloud #Stocks #Buy #Hand #Fist #February Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Horoscope for Saturday, February 8, 2025 – Chicago Sun-Times Horoscope for Saturday, February 8, 2025 – Chicago Sun-Times Horoscope for Saturday, February 8, 2025 Chicago Sun-TimesHoroscopes Today, February 8, 2025 USA TODAYYour Daily Work Horoscope for February 08, 2025 Yahoo LifeAries Daily Horoscope Today, February 08, 2025 predicts a favourable day for singles Hindustan TimesYour Daily Horoscope by Madame Clairevoyant: February 7, 2025 The Cut Source link #Horoscope #Saturday #February #Chicago #SunTimes Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Former Swansea and Brecon bishop admits indecent assault on child Former Swansea and Brecon bishop admits indecent assault on child Wales News Service Anthony Pierce admitted indecent assault on a child, the Church in Wales has said in a statement A former bishop has admitted indecent assault on a child, the Church in Wales has said in a statement. Anthony Pierce, who was bishop of Swansea and Brecon between 1999 and 2008, appeared at Swansea Crown Court on Friday. He admitted five counts of indecent assault on a male child under the age of 16, the church said. It added the offences date from between 1985 and 1990, when Mr Pierce was a parish priest in West Cross, Swansea. Mr Pierce has been remanded on bail and a provisional date of 7 March has been set for sentencing at Swansea Crown Court, the church said. Allegations came to the church’s attention in 2023 when the survivor made a disclosure to its safeguarding officer. It said the disclosure was immediately passed to the police. It added following sentencing, the Church in Wales Disciplinary Tribunal would consider further appropriate action. A statement said: “The Church in Wales is appalled at the offences which have been revealed in this case and expresses its deepest sympathy with the victim for the abuse they have suffered.” “It is a cause of the most profound shame that a priest in the Church in Wales should have been convicted of such shocking crimes,” it added. The church said some members may have been aware of a further allegation made against Mr Pierce in 1993 and said it had commissioned an immediate review into how this was handled. “There is no place for any form of abuse in the Church in Wales. We give the highest priority to the care and protection of children and vulnerable people in our communities. “To this end we regularly review our safeguarding procedures and provide extensive training to staff and volunteers,” it added. In a letter to parishioners, the current bishop of Swansea and Brecon, the Right Reverend John Lomas, said that this case was “deeply shocking”. “We are perhaps beyond the stage of expressing shock when we discover a person in a position of trust has used that position to ********* abuse a vulnerable person,” he said. “It feels at the moment that you can hardly read, hear or watch the news without learning of the latest incident. “But I know this particular case will be deeply shocking to so many of you. This isn’t a person you’ve read about or seen on TV. “Tony Pierce was your parish priest, your archdeacon, your bishop. The Diocese is full of people baptised, confirmed or ordained by him,” he added. Source link #Swansea #Brecon #bishop #admits #indecent #assault #child Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Fremantle Docker and Indigenous All-Stars captain Michael Walters talks leadership and being a role model Fremantle Docker and Indigenous All-Stars captain Michael Walters talks leadership and being a role model Michael Walters has enjoyed a stunning AFL career, but he always wanted to do more than play – he wanted to lead and be a role model. Now he’s been named captain of the Indigenous All-Stars. Source link #Fremantle #Docker #Indigenous #AllStars #captain #Michael #Walters #talks #leadership #role #model Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Wreckfest 2 hits Steam Early Access in March Wreckfest 2 hits Steam Early Access in March A new trailer gives us a first look at Wreckfest 2’s enhanced damage system. Source link #Wreckfest #hits #Steam #Early #Access #March Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Could Buying PepsiCo Stock Today Set You Up for Life? Could Buying PepsiCo Stock Today Set You Up for Life? When searching for new stocks to invest in, dividend investors usually try to find a good compromise between income, income stability, and growth potential. There’s no perfect investment that scores high on all three at once, so trade-offs have to be made. Right now, PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) looks like it is offering investors a good combination of positives because it is facing some near-term negatives that seem likely to be temporary headwinds. Here’s why buying PepsiCo today could help to set you up for a lifetime of reliable dividends. Given the company’s name, PepsiCo often gets looked at as a beverage company. This isn’t wrong, as it does produce a broad range of beverages along with its namesake brand. However, the company is far more diversified, producing and marketing snacks and packaged food products as well. In fact, the consumer staples giant’s snack business is probably more exciting than its beverage business, given that PepsiCo is the No. 2 player in non-alcoholic beverages but the No. 1 player in salty snacks with its Frito-Lay business. Image source: Getty Images. And while the packaged food operation isn’t near the top of the pack, PepsiCo’s Quaker Oats division has some serious name recognition. All in, PepsiCo is a huge force within the consumer staples sector with a diversified portfolio of products that are truly differentiated. It is pretty close to a one-stop shop in the food space. Its industry-leading position, meanwhile, is protected by its size and scale. PepsiCo has a distribution network and marketing team that are hard to compete with. Given its size and financial strength, it can act as an industry consolidator, noting that it just recently bought a ********-American food brand called Siete. This type of acquisition can quickly add to PepsiCo’s growth because the smaller business gets plugged into PepsiCo’s distribution network and benefits from increased advertising. So, from a big-picture perspective, PepsiCo is the kind of company that allows investors to benefit from its strong potential for long-term business growth. That, however, is only half the story since buying a good company at too high a price can turn it into a bad investment. PepsiCo’s recent performance, coupled with tough industry dynamics, has pushed the shares into value territory. The 3.6% dividend yield is near all-time highs, and the price-to-sales, price-to-earnings, and price-to-book value ratios are all below their five-year averages. PepsiCo stock looks like it has been put on the sales rack. Story Continues PEP data by YCharts Why is PepsiCo so cheap today? The company’s financial performance has cooled after a strong run following the coronavirus pandemic. There are concerns that new weight loss drugs will hurt demand. And it seems as though regulators are turning in a more health-conscious direction. These are all legitimate issues to consider, but bear in mind that PepsiCo has increased its dividend annually for more than five decades, making it a Dividend King. You don’t build a record like that by accident; it requires a strong and resilient business. Or, to put that more succinctly, PepsiCo has muddled through hard times before, and if history is any guide, it will likely do so again this time around, too. If you buy PepsiCo stock today, you are getting a stock that has fallen about 20% from its all-time highs. That means it has a historically high yield and a historically cheap valuation. And yet it is backed by a very strong business. Dividend investors looking to be set up with a lifetime of strong dividends should be very interested. So, too, should dividend growth investors, given the track record of annual dividend increases. Growth-at-a-reasonable-price investors should also find the stock appealing, considering the valuation. If you think in decades and not days, PepsiCo appears to be a great long-term investment opportunity today. It is the kind of stock you buy and hold onto for the rest of your life. Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you’d have $333,669!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $44,168!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $547,748!* Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon. Learn more » *Stock Advisor returns as of February 3, 2025 Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in PepsiCo. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Could Buying PepsiCo Stock Today Set You Up for Life? was originally published by The Motley Fool Source link #Buying #PepsiCo #Stock #Today #Set #Life Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Here Is What to Know About U.S. Foreign Aid and the Trump Freeze Here Is What to Know About U.S. Foreign Aid and the Trump Freeze President Trump’s executive order freezing most U.S. foreign aid for 90 days has thrown into turmoil programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases, run clinical trials and seek to provide shelter for millions of displaced people across the globe. The government’s lead agency for delivering humanitarian aid, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or U.S.A.I.D., has been hit the hardest. Mr. Trump has accused the agency of rampant corruption and fraud, without providing evidence. The Trump administration ordered thousands of the agency’s workers to return to the United States from overseas; put all of the agency’s direct hires, including its roster of Foreign Service officers, on indefinite administrative leave; and shifted oversight of the agency to the State Department. On Thursday, the Trump administration announced plans to gut the agency’s staff, reducing U.S.A.I.D.’s work force of more than 10,000 to perhaps a few hundred. On Friday, a judge temporarily blocked elements of the Trump administration’s plan to shut down the agency, though the aid freeze remains in effect. How much foreign aid does the U.S. provide? In total, the United States spent nearly $72 billion on foreign assistance in 2023, which includes spending by U.S.A.I.D., the State Department and programs managed by agencies like the Peace Corps. As a percentage of its economic output, the United States — which has the world’s largest economy — gives much less in foreign aid than other developed countries. U.S.A.I.D. spent about $38 billion on health services, disaster relief, anti-poverty efforts and other programs in fiscal year 2023. That was less than 1 percent of the federal budget. Who are the recipients? Mr. Trump’s freeze on U.S. foreign aid does not apply to weapons support for countries like Israel and Egypt, and emergency food assistance is also exempt. In 2023, the last year for which full data is available, Ukraine, which has been waging a war against Russia since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, received $16.6 billion, the most U.S. assistance of any country or region. The bulk of that went to economic development, followed by humanitarian aid and security. Israel — which was attacked by ******-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, setting off a 15-month war in Gaza — received the second-highest amount of U.S. assistance: $3.3 billion in 2023, mainly for security. Ethiopia, Somalia and Nigeria received more than $1 billion each in 2023, mostly for humanitarian aid. In Latin America, Colombia was the top recipient of U.S. aid, $705 million, in 2023. How is the money spent? U.S. foreign aid can be structured as direct financial assistance to countries through nongovernmental organizations; military support; food and medical aid; or technical expertise. Foreign aid can be a form of soft power, serving a country’s strategic interests, strengthening allies and helping to prevent conflicts. In the case of U.S.A.I.D., money has gone toward humanitarian aid, development assistance and direct budget support in Ukraine, peace-building in Somalia, disease surveillance in Cambodia, vaccination programs in Nigeria, H.I.V. prevention in Uganda and maternal health assistance in Zambia. The agency has also helped to contain major outbreaks of Ebola. Contrary to a claim by Mr. Trump, U.S. money has not been used to send condoms to Gaza for use by ******, health officials say. In a statement late last month, the International Medical Corps said that it had received more than $68 million from U.S.A.I.D. since October 2023 for its work in the enclave but that “no U.S. government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms.” Instead, the group said, the money was used to operate two field hospitals, treat and diagnose malnutrition, deliver more than 5,000 babies and perform 11,000 surgeries. Why was the freeze ordered? For years, conservative critics have questioned the value of U.S. foreign aid programs. The Trump administration argues that the halt to foreign aid is necessary to examine whether U.S. funds are being wasted. “Every dollar we spend, every program we fund and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a recent statement. “Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?” On his Truth Social platform Friday, Mr. Trump wrote, “CLOSE IT DOWN!” He has asserted without evidence that the agency was “run by radical lunatics.” Mr. Rubio, who previously spoke out in support of the agency, has taken aim at the organization, faulting its employees for “deciding that they’re somehow a global charity separate from the national interest.” He has insisted, however, that the takeover was “not about getting rid of foreign aid.” He said during a recent Fox News interview, “We have rank insubordination” in the agency, adding that U.S.A.I.D. employees had been “completely uncooperative, so we had no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.” What have been the effects of the aid freeze? As organizations across the globe reeled, the Trump administration switched gears. Mr. Rubio announced that “lifesaving humanitarian assistance” could continue but that the reprieve would be “temporary.” But by then, hundreds of senior officials and workers who help distribute American aid had already been fired or put on leave, and many aid efforts remain paralyzed. Dozens of clinical trials in South Asia, Africa and Latin America have been suspended. The freeze left people with experimental drugs and medical products in their bodies, cut them off from the researchers monitoring them and spread fear. In South Africa, for example, the freeze shut down a U.S.A.I.D.-funded study of silicone rings inserted in women to prevent pregnancy and H.IV. infection. About 2.4 million anti-malaria bed nets, manufactured to fulfill U.S.-funded orders and bound for countries across sub-Saharan Africa, were stuck in production facilities in Asia. Those contracts are frozen because the U.S.A.I.D. subcontractor that bought them is not allowed to talk to the manufacturer under the terms of the freeze. In Uganda, a national anti-malaria program suspended spraying insecticide into village homes and halted shipments of bed nets for distribution to pregnant women and young children. And in Syria, the executive order threatens a U.S. program supporting security forces inside a notorious camp, known as Al Hol, in the Syrian desert that holds tens of thousands of Islamic State members and their families, Syrian and U.S. officials said. What was the reaction to the Trump order? U.S.A.I.D. officials have been bracing for a drastic reduction to their ranks since contractors started being let go just days after the Trump administration’s stop-work order. But Democratic lawmakers say the moves to dismantle the agency or merge it with the State Department are ********. Two unions representing U.S.A.I.D. employees on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Mr. Trump, Mr. Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the agencies they lead. The suit argued that the reduction in personnel and the cancellation of global aid contracts were unconstitutional and violated the separation of powers. It sought an injunction to stop the firing and furloughing of employees and the dismantling of the agency. It argued that U.S.A.I.D. cannot be unwound without the previous approval of Congress. “What we’re seeing is an unlawful seizure of this agency by the Trump administration in a plain violation of basic constitutional principles,” said Robin Thurston, the legal director for Democracy Forward, one of two advocacy organizations that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the American Foreign Service Association and American Federation of Government Employees. He added that the administration had “generated a global humanitarian crisis.” On Friday afternoon, after a hearing, Judge Carl Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said he would issue a temporary restraining order pausing the administrative leave of 2,200 U.S.A.I.D. employees and a plan to withdraw nearly all the agency’s overseas workers within 30 days. Source link #U.S #Foreign #Aid #Trump #Freeze Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

What does Elon Musk believe? | Trump administration What does Elon Musk believe? | Trump administration Musk’s embrace of the far right has raised urgent questions about what Musk’s political beliefs and how he intends to use his newfound power. Composite: Angelica Alzona/Guardian Design; Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images Elon Musk is not a people person, as millions around the world will be able to attest after the planet’s richest man cut off food supplies, healthcare and probably even life itself to some of the most vulnerable without so much as a *****- or afterthought. Musk sees himself as a data man, wielding numbers like a machete to slash and burn his way through government waste and corruption as he leads the rightwing charge to capture the US state. Within days of Musk dispatching his minions to kick down the doors of the US Agency for International Development (USAid) and rifle through its finances, the agency was in effect out of business. Musk claimed USAid was “a criminal organisation” and full of Marxists – an assertion called “laughable” by the agency’s former administrator under George W Bush, Andrew Natsios, who describes himself as a conservative Republican. Musk didn’t care. Less than three weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the head of the new “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has created an extensive power base in Washington of a kind not seen before. Trump has given free rein to Musk to send his operatives into more than a dozen federal agencies to look for evidence of mismanagement and subversion, and generally create chaos, outside of the usual bounds of oversight and regulation. Crucially, Musk now in effect controls the 0ffice of personnel management (OPM) which oversees federal employment. He immediately encouraged more than 2 million government workers to resign with the stated aim of forcing a few hundred thousand out the door. A supporter of Donald Trump interrupts an anti-Doge protest outside of the Department of Labor in Washington on Wednesday. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images It’s clear who Musk thinks should be running the country instead, from his recruitment to Doge of “special government employees” from his own companies and the wider tech industry to storm the federal citadels. They include a significant proportion of young male software engineers of the kind who tend to worship tech billionaires like Musk, including a teenager who has gone by “Big ******” online. Few, if any, have undergone the security clearances other government workers need to access sensitive and personal information. If they had, Doge might have been discouraged from hiring another recruit from Silicon Valley, Marko Elez, who was sent into the US treasury department, where he had access to taxpayer records. Elez resigned on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal revealed he posted racist messages on social media and defended eugenics. “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” Elez wrote on X in July. On the face of it, Musk is implementing Trump’s commitment to cut spending, “dismantle the deep state” and sack “rogue bureaucrats”. But his embrace of the far right, including an unrestrained endorsement of the ******* nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD), and what looked to much of the world like a Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration celebrations, has raised urgent questions about Musk’s political beliefs and how he intends to use his newfound power. As it happens, much of what Musk is doing is also good for his businesses, including scrapping regulatory bodies and curtailing the power of unions and workers. The labor board, which upholds workers’ rights, has been paralysed and agencies that regulated the financial industry have either been scrapped or told to abandon key parts of their work. Musk’s politics have been eclectic. In the past he has backed universal basic income and a tax on carbon emissions. At the same time he has a deep dislike of trade unions and public transport because it means being around “random strangers, one of whom might be a serial killer”. He espouses a visceral hostility to diversity programmes and appears to regard those who believe in helping the less fortunate as subversive. Thrown into this mix is Musk’s fascination with the pronatalism movement, for which he has done his bit by fathering 12 children, and his hope that one day his rocket company, SpaceX, will help them colonise Mars. Raised in South Africa under apartheid, Musk is clearly suspicious of democracy and the leaders it produces. His grandfather headed a fringe political movement in Canada in the 1930s, Technocracy Incorporated, which sought to abolish democracy in favour of government by elite technicians, but its overtones of fascism saw it banned during the second world war. Musk shows some of the same tendencies as do other libertarian-leaning Silicon Valley billionaires unhappy with the messiness of elected government. He has spoken in support of direct democracy, where policies and other issues are decided by popular referendums rather than elected representatives. But in the meantime, Musk appears happy to embrace the US version of the “strongman” ruler through the Republican right’s “unitary executive theory”, which regards the authority of the president as paramount and Congress as an impediment to the implementation of his or her will. Over the years, Musk has described himself as “not a conservative” and “politically moderate”. He backed the Democratic candidate in every presidential election going back to Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 until he soured on the party in the past few years. Barack Obama and Elon Musk in 2010. Photograph: Jim Young/Reuters “In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold,” he wrote on X in 2022. But there were clues to other motives including a statement that he would be voting Republican because of Joe Biden’s support for trade unions and what he regarded as insufficient Democratic backing for his companies. Not long before last year’s presidential election, Musk declared that Trump would save American democracy from Democrats trampling on individual liberties. But he kept moving ever further to the right in public, with an open embrace of racist European political leaders, including the AfD, and the promotion of claims of a “white genocide” in the country of his birth, South Africa. Musk’s biographer, Walter Isaacson, has linked his shift from Obama voter to cheerleader for the AfD to the transition of his daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson. Wilson was 16 when she texted a relative: “Hey, I’m transgender, and my name is now Jenna. Don’t tell my dad.” The day after Wilson turned 18 in 2022, she changed her name because of “gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form”. Musk told Isaacson he was sanguine about the change but then Wilson became a fervent Marxist and wouldn’t speak to him any more, a situation he described as one of the most painful of his life. “She went beyond socialism to being a full ********** and thinking that anyone rich is evil,” Musk told the author. Musk blamed Wilson’s progressive Los Angeles school and said he was disturbed at the “woke mind virus” holding back America. After California passed a law barring school districts from requiring teachers to tell parents of changes to a student’s ******* orientation and gender identity, Musk announced he was moving the headquarters of his two largest companies, SpaceX and X, to Texas. He said that the law caused “massive destruction of parental rights” and put children at risk of “permanent damage”. Musk did not say that moving his companies also had significant tax advantages for himself and his businesses, which would additionally be subject to fewer climate regulations than in California. Still, his apparent anger of his daughter’s transition appears to have set in motion a broader hostility to identity issues, and diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes, a favourite target of the Trumpian right. Musk announced that the words “cis” and “cisgender” were considered slurs on X, and he came out against pronouns, tweeting that they “*****”. In late 2022, another tweet linked Musk’s hostility towards the way people choose to identify themselves – an odd position for a man who claims to be a champion of free speech – to his anger at the Biden administration’s Covid restrictions. Donald Trump and Elon Musk in November 2024. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters Musk mocked Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser who was instrumental in the lockdown and other measures to contain the crisis. “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” he wrote. Some saw the tweet as evidence that Musk was now openly identifying with the far right, which defied mask regulations and stay-at-home orders, and called for Fauci to be locked up for intruding on their liberties. But while Musk’s hostility to pronouns was personal, Covid regulations touched on his businesses and net worth. Musk refused to close his Tesla factory at the height of the pandemic, claiming without evidence that “panic” over the virus would do more damage than the disease itself. He disparaged social distancing, predicted that the virus would claim few lives in the US (it eventually claimed more than 1.2 million), and described the lockdown as “fascist” and “erasing people’s freedoms”. Musk tweeted a meme comparing Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to Hitler over his government’s Covid restrictions. Musk may have dressed up his position as a concern about people’s ******** but its immediate effect was to keep his factories rolling even if the people working in them were at greater risk of infection and death. And while Musk claimed a principled position in favour of individual liberty, he has a history of suppressing the rights of his own workers. In 2023, he said that he disagreed with the concept of trade unions. “I just don’t like anything which creates a lords and peasants sort of thing,” he told the New York Times Dealbook Summit. “Unions naturally try to create negativity in a company.” One reason Musk may not like unions is they tend to stand up for their members. He has faced accusations from former employees of aggressively using a secretive dispute resolution process to fend off repeated claims of ******* and racial harassment within his companies, including accusations of women enduring a “frat house” atmosphere of groping and other abuses ignored and even perpetrated by high-level managers. Tesla has paid out millions of dollars to ****** workers subjected to racial harassment. Yet, while Musk restricts the rights of this employees to seek redress from the courts, he and his companies filed at least 23 lawsuits in federal courts in the year to August 2024, according to Fortune magazine. They include a legal action by X against the Center for Countering Digital Hate over a report accusing the social network of making millions of dollars out of accounts spewing hate from “neo-Nazis, white supremacists, misogynists and spreaders of dangerous conspiracy theories”. A California judge threw out the lawsuit last year, saying it was clear the “case is about punishing the defendants for their speech”. Musk will probably spend a lot more time being frustrated by the courts. Judges have already put on hold his push for mass resignations from the civil service and placed some restrictions on Doge’s mass collection of data. Federal workers, unions and civil rights organisations are lining up a flurry of lawsuits to challenge Musk’s actions. But the courts themselves may become a target for Musk as he works to tear down the old order. Isaacson in his biography wrote that Musk once described being in “a state of war at all times” as one of his default settings. No one thinks that, so long as Trump continues to regard the billionaire as more of an asset than a liability, Musk’s thirst for power will stop at gutting federal agencies. The question is where he will launch his next offensive. Source link #Elon #Musk #Trump #administration Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Civilization VII Is Filled With Simulated Crises and Real Lessons Civilization VII Is Filled With Simulated Crises and Real Lessons Unhappiness is a dreaded condition in the Civilization game series. Unhappy citizens stop working, stop researching scientific pursuits and, worst of all, start rioting. In the new Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, which introduces three historical ages and a mounting series of crises during the transitions between them, my ancient Babylonian empire was running smoothly and expanding with ease. Then, suddenly, things struggled to feel cohesive. The game declared that my empire had fractured “as once-loyal settlements seek their own path forward.” The unhappiness in my cities and towns grew so severe that several outlying settlements began trashing their districts and looking to outside civilizations for support. While I worked at putting out fires started by rioters, my neighbor Napoleon swooped in and quickly conquered one of my towns. This started a territorial war that only deepened the unhappiness of my population. Soon, half my towns were in revolt. While following your chosen civilization’s path in Civilization VII, from the rough-hewed settlements of the past to the glistening megalopolises of the future, you move through ages that transform not just your technologies, government and civic policies, but also the broader identity of your civilization itself. With its precipitous rises and falls, Civilization VII, which will be released on Tuesday for PCs, Macs and consoles, is a departure for the series. Although past iterations have had revolts, diplomatic incidents and civic upset, they tend to feel less closely connected to the ways that historical forces can boil over into crisis and conflict. The violent and chaotic cuts here accurately reflect a world history where many things can happen all at once and often with surprising swiftness. History doesn’t always move forward in the routine, turn-based lock step of the 4X genre (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) that Civilization popularized. More often, root causes like financial instability, cultural changes and oppressive hierarchies stay below the surface until emerging in a cacophony of war, revolution and natural-disaster-fueled chaos. It feels appropriate to be playing this game at this point in America’s history. The coronavirus pandemic was an event of immense disruption. The whole planet came to a standstill; many industries floundered and either transformed completely or disappeared. At the same time, we had a leader in President Trump who could compound the feelings of disorientation. We are a divided and unhappy nation, and it’s difficult to know where to go from here. It’s in states of disorientation that societies can see change that appears to happen overnight. What seemed impossible during periods of greater stability can now be pushed through. Naomi Klein posits this in “The Shock Doctrine,” a 2007 political history in which she points to a series of major political shifts in the latter half of the 20th century as examples of moments when societies faced crises and changed dramatically: the end of apartheid in South Africa. The Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The war in Iraq under George W. Bush. Those who pick up Civilization VII will be buffeted by these sorts of crisis scenarios, as well as by increasingly violent environmental catastrophes like flooding rivers and erupting volcanoes. It’s easy to see why dramatic political change can result. It took a hurricane in New Orleans for real estate conglomerates to condemn many of the housing units once occupied by poor residents and for the city to try a radical approach to its education system like privatizing it with charter schools. It took a tsunami in Sri Lanka after a cease-fire in its civil war for its tourism industry to kick out the fishing villagers who once lived on its ravaged beaches. The end of the Soviet Union brought precipitous economic collapse, which along with pressure from Western banks led to a corrupt bifurcated society ruled by oligarchs. Civilization VII evokes the dynamics of these historical moments through its gameplay, by always having crises accompany change. The identity of your starting civilization — Aksum, Egypt, Khmer, Maya, Rome, etc. — cannot shift from one age to the next without disruption, without an often overwhelming amount of chaos that threatens to bring everything crashing down. Each transition disrupts the smooth, automatic function of a civilization. The people want more from your leadership; you can no longer ride out your deficits, borrowing against tomorrow. Tomorrow has arrived. In the game’s first age, antiquity, you establish cities and towns and map out the geography of your starting continent. Once you have a nascent empire — spreading out a bit, meeting a few other civilizations, and discovering the oceanic borders of your land mass — the game moves into the exploration age, which introduces seafaring, colonization and religious proselytizing. The final age is the modern one, with the world now mostly settled and divided up, its borders more sharply defined and ossified. In my play-through as the Babylonian empire, surviving into the exploration age automatically quelled the uprisings. I adopted a cohesive new identity, of the Abbasid empire, and proceeded to spread my civilization’s Islamic beliefs far and wide, with an endless army of missionaries. I managed to ride out the threatening rise of the mercantile class and the bourgeoisie, wrap up the exploration age, and make it a few turns into the modern age, only to have war declared on me by several civilizations at once. During Civilization VII’s catastrophic transitions, it’s easy to lose hope, to drift unsure into a dissociated doomerism. I lost one town to riots, another to invasion, and the production in my capital is stalled. It’s hard not to resign myself to powerlessness in the face of severe catastrophes that seem to appear out of nowhere. But persevering in the face of disaster usually means making it out to the other side, eventually. Remember that the potential for change can work both ways. The civilization that makes it out of a crisis often won’t look anything like the one that went in. Source link #Civilization #VII #Filled #Simulated #Crises #Real #Lessons Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

How Trump’s Tariff Threats Tore the U.S.-Canada Bond How Trump’s Tariff Threats Tore the U.S.-Canada Bond Booing during “The Star-Spangled Banner” at sports games in Canada. “Buy *********” signs multiplying at grocery stores amid a brewing boycott of U.S. goods. Cross-party calls to find new friends and customers on the global stage. President Trump may have paused his plans to impose crushing tariffs on Canada, pulling the two countries back from the brink of a trade war. But evidence abounds of the damage Mr. Trump has inflicted on the relations between the two nations. After threatening levies on Canada, and Canada threatening to retaliate, Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday came to an agreement for a 30-day reprieve in the brewing trade war in exchange for new measures to tackle the flow of fentanyl across the northern border. But the standoff has left many Canadians livid. And Mr. Trump’s menacing rhetoric, especially his repeated statements that he wants the United States to annex Canada and make it the 51st state, seems to have fractured the fraternal trust that has, for more than a century, been the core of the relationship. “This has damaged the relationship quite significantly, and there will be a ******* of sorting out,” said Jon Parmenter, professor of North American history at Cornell. “It has triggered really significant and striking emotional responses. It’s very raw for people.” Mr. Parmenter noted that being America’s far less populous neighbor has not always been comfortable for Canadians, who are deeply aware of their dependence on trading with the United States and know that so many things emanating from their superpower neighbor — from pop culture to economic downturns — influence their lives. In the words of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the former ********* prime minister and father of the current one: “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” But, Mr. Parmenter added, rubbing in that dependence the way Mr. Trump has done with his invocation of annexation and repeated complaints about Canada providing little in return to the United States, has touched off a visceral response in ********* society. History Matters While Canada has been described as the United States’ closest friend for over a century, until World War II it was actually closer economically and politically with Britain. The Atlantic province of Newfoundland and Labrador was a British colony until it joined Canada, which it did only in 1949. Events like the war in Vietnam, the brutal crackdown in the South of protests during the civil rights movement and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Canada strongly opposed, tested that friendship at times. But it has generally been marked by moments like the ********* response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. As flights to the United States were grounded, about 7,000 air travelers aboard dozens of diverted flights, mostly Americans, were taken in by the residents of Gander, Newfoundland, a community of just 11,000 people. The scenes of heartfelt hospitality in one of America’s worst moments were recounted in the Broadway musical “Come From Away.” In his emotional address to the nation on Saturday, Mr. Trudeau, who made sure to direct his comments to Canadians and American, did not forget those bonds. He quoted President John F. Kennedy, who said about Canada: “Geography has made us neighbors, history has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies.” And he added: “From the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar, we have fought and died alongside you during your darkest hours.” Team Canada Mr. Trump’s targeting of Canada has forged a rare consensus among Canadians and among politicians who, until last week, were feuding amid one of the country’s most fraught political periods in recent history. But for Mr. Trudeau, the opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, and other senior politicians, there is only one game in ********* politics right now: Team Canada. “We need a Canada First plan that’s good for this country,” Mr. Poilievre, the Conservative opposition leader, said in reaction to the tariff fight. And while Mr. Poilievre has built a big advantage in polls over Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Party by highlighting what he describes as the prime minister’s failures, he has momentarily toned down those attacks in recent days to focus on a unifying message. Mr. Trudeau has leaped at this rally-round-the-flag moment. “In this moment, we must pull together because we love this country,” he said on Saturday evening, when tariffs were supposed to begin in just more than 48 hours. “We don’t pretend to be perfect, but Canada is the best country on earth,” he added. Chrystia Freeland, the former finance minister, who is running to replace Mr. Trudeau as Liberal Party leader, tried to capture the nation’s mood during an interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN over the weekend. “We’re hurt, for sure, because we’re your friends and neighbors, but most of all, we’re angry, and we are united and resolute,” she said, adding “Canada is the true north, strong and free,” an echo of Canada’s national anthem. Public opinion surveys suggest these politicians are aligned with the public mood: 91 percent of those asked said they wanted a reduction in the country’s reliance on the United States, according to a poll conducted on Sunday and Monday by Angus Reid. The poll also found a 10 percentage point jump since December in the number of people declaring themselves to be “very proud” to be *********, and a similar jump in the percentage of Canadians saying they feel “a deep emotional attachment to Canada.” Speaking at a campaign event in Windsor, Ontario, Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, who is also running to replace Mr. Trudeau, said he had been traveling around the country seeking support for his campaign and finding the mood of Canadians toward the United States to be “initially confusion and bewilderment.” But, increasingly, he added, there is “a real enthusiasm and energy to get on with things on our terms, because we don’t want to wake up every morning and check through social media to find out how our country is being affected.” ‘I Feel Really Betrayed’ The prospect of thousands of auto workers being laid off if Mr. Trump’s threatened 25 percent tariff is ultimately put in place has brought fear to many people in Windsor, which is the heart of Canada’s automotive industry and sits just across from Detroit. And it has even shaken Canadians who once supported Mr. Trump — a ********* of the population, according to surveys. Joe Butler, a trucker who carries new cars and trucks every day from a factory owned by the automaker Stellantis, Windsor’s largest employer, up and down the highway corridor to Toronto, is one of many Canadians with family ties to the United States. His great-grandparents moved from the United States to Alberta, in Western Canada, where some of his distant relatives still ranch, before his grandfather moved east to Ontario. During summer school breaks, Mr. Butler joined his father, a long-haul trucker, in the cab during his runs to the United States. “Growing up, I loved the culture of America: the people, the lifestyle, the landscape,” said Mr. Butler, whose cargo usually consists of vehicles assembled in Stellantis factories in Mexico and the United States. Mr. Trump’s promise to rebuild America, Mr. Butler said, resonated with him. “I was 100 percent behind him as a *********,” Mr. Butler said. “Now I just shake my head and say: Where are you going?” he said. “You just went and completely kicked us in the nuts. It’s scary.” If the auto industry comes to a halt, Mr. Butler said, he has a small beer, wine and liquor delivery service that he can fall back on for income. But, he added, most of his friends and family members lack such options. Mr. Butler, who buys the groceries for his family, now boycotts American-made products. And he wants Canada to find a way to cut out the United States as much as possible. “I don’t care if they close the border, we can live on our own,” he said. “I still love America, and my job depends on the American economy. But now I feel really betrayed.” Source link #Trumps #Tariff #Threats #Tore #U.S.Canada #Bond Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

The Greatest ‘Saturday Night Live’ Episode Ever* The Greatest ‘Saturday Night Live’ Episode Ever* As measured by the calendar, “Saturday Night Live” is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. But you could also say that 50 “Saturday Night Lives” are each celebrating an anniversary. There are, of course, those who watch the show every week, every year, and have followed its evolution for decades. But many of us have a singular personal “Saturday Night Live”: a particular season or group of performers that defines the show for us. Don’t take this from me. Take it from Lorne Michaels. “Generally, when people talk about the best cast,” he once said, “I think, ‘Well, that’s when they were in high school.’” I was in high school in 1984. Even back then — those freaks-and-geeks years when you define yourself by your pop-culture obsessions and nerds are most vulnerable to the wiles of sketch comedy — I was only a modest “S.N.L.” fan. I loved “S.C.T.V.” and David Letterman and Monty Python. In college and later, I would move on to “The Simpsons” and other comedy enthusiasms. Sometimes I’d enjoy “S.N.L.”; sometimes I’d hate it; sometimes I’d enjoy hating it. But honestly, for most of my life I’ve thought of it like a public utility — always there, but not something I’d be a “fan” of any more than I’d be a fan of the gas company. But there was a while when “S.N.L.” vibrated on my wavelength, when I was the right age to stay up, when my friends spent every Monday quoting lines to one another in the school cafeteria. I can narrow my “S.N.L.” of choice down to a specific season — in fact, to a specific episode: Season 10, Episode 9, airdate Dec. 15, 1984. (You can stream an abbreviated version of this episode on Peacock; as is frustratingly true of many classic episodes, you’ll need to search for omitted clips online. My wife, an archivist, worked her contacts years ago to find us a samizdat recording of the full episode, which I treasure as an heirloom.) My sense is that many “S.N.L.” fans consider Season 10 to be something of an asterisk, an aberration. Michaels wasn’t even with the show at the time — this was the ***** Ebersol interregnum, and there had just been a major shake-up in the cast. Ebersol, like a baseball owner opening his wallet to free agents, brought in established comedy performers, including Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Rich Hall, Martin Short and Pamela Stephenson. The series did not have Eddie Murphy, who had continued the tradition of breakout stars’ leaving the series and its long, late hours for the movie business. This one night, however, he came back. Swaggering onstage in a glittery ****** jacket, he said that he had sworn never to return and only signed on as host after making the dud “Best Defense” with Dudley Moore. (“The money they gave me, y’all would have did ‘Best Defense’, too.”) In the interim, a little movie named “Beverly Hills Cop” came out, and Murphy returned a conquering hero. The episode built him a monumental pedestal. He reprised several famous characters, including the inner-city children’s host Mr. Robinson and an adult version of the “Our Gang” urchin Buckwheat, opposite Mary Gross as the squeaky-haired and deranged Alfalfa. But the enduring classic of the episode is a pretaped mockumentary, “White Like Me,” in which Murphy goes undercover in whiteface and a Ned Flanders mustache to reveal the secret ways of white Americans. (The premise is a takeoff on “****** Like Me,” the 1961 book, later adapted into a film, for which John Howard Griffin darkened his skin to pass as ******.) “When white people are alone,” Murphy discovers, “they give each other things for free,” from newspapers to bank loans. When the only other ****** man on a New York City bus gets off at his stop, the white passengers serve cocktails and start dancing to oldies music. It’s a picture of racism less as weapon than as invisible gate, the kind of brutal, full-bore satire that “S.N.L.” only occasionally manages. The episode shows off Murphy’s versatility — he plays piano to fill 30 seconds of dead air when a commercial break is mistimed — and his ability to be both explosive and deadpan. Playing a militant Afrocentric scholar in the ****** History Minute sketch, he stumbles for a moment, then turns the break into an expression of the character: “Stop clapping before y’all make me smile!” It also, excruciatingly, memorializes the homophobia of Murphy’s early comedy, which he repudiated decades later. In a Saturday Night News monologue on children’s toys, he holds up a pink-shirted Ken doll and warns parents, “unless you want your sons to live in the Village and skip to work, keep them as far away from Ken as possible.” This is another legacy of the ’80s comedy that percolated into our Gen X school lunchrooms, one that’s a lot less fun to remember. But many of the moments I love in the episode come from the odd, mostly forgotten bits that draw on this ensemble’s specific talents and hit my forming comic sensibility at just the right oblique angle. Take the Lishman’s Deli sketch, in which Murphy’s Gumby character — the green clay stop-motion figure reimagined as a crabby Borscht Belt has-been — trades insults with a gang of alter kockers played by Crystal, Guest and Short, who reminisce and argue about sandwiches named for celebrities. (“A Morey Amsterdam is what we used to call a herring melt,” Crystal declares.) Larry David — who would bring a grouchy Jewish sensibility to TV in “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” — was a writer on the show that season and does a newspaper crossword in the background of the sketch. The episode has plenty of filler too, like a sketch pairing the South African bishop Desmond Tutu (Murphy) and the Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie (Hall), as well as Short playing the great-niece of Jerry Lewis, a plastic surgeon’s receptionist. But one viewer’s filler is another’s genius, and for me that sketch is “Climbing the Stairs.” The premise is ridiculous: Short plays Lawrence Orbach, a World War II soldier, trapped in a farmhouse, who needs to save his unit by calling for help from a phone on the second floor. Orbach, who grew up in the Midwest, doesn’t know how to climb stairs. (“It never came up!”) It’s barely an idea, the kind of late-in-the-episode sketch that many viewers will wish had been cut for time. Yet Short puts it over with his trademark terrified awkwardness and self-sacrificing physical comedy, hurling himself at the steps as if they were the face of Everest. The sketch is dumb; it lasts too long and fizzles out; I cannot rationally defend it. And God help me, I cannot think of it four decades later without giggling. Was this broadcast the greatest 90 minutes of “Saturday Night Live” ever? Probably not! If you live long enough, you become the old man in the deli nattering on about your obscure and personal affections. This episode is my Morey Amsterdam sandwich. But it hit the spot for me. This, in the end, is all that “Saturday Night Live” promises: not perfection or even excellence, but simply that it will give you the silly and the excruciating and leave you, years later, laughing yourself stupid at a memory that comes out of nowhere. Source link #Greatest #Saturday #Night #Live #Episode Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

PlayStation Network outage reported worldwide – BBC.com PlayStation Network outage reported worldwide – BBC.com PlayStation Network outage reported worldwide BBC.comView Full Coverage on Google News Source link #PlayStation #Network #outage #reported #worldwide #BBC.com Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

How Could the Weather Service Change Under Trump? How Could the Weather Service Change Under Trump? As President Trump issues rapid-fire executive orders intended to drastically reduce the federal work force and dismantle several agencies, many federal employees are left wondering what the future holds. At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency with wide-ranging responsibilities that include disentangling whales from fishing nets off Alaska, gathering satellite data on wildfires in California and issuing tornado warnings in Kansas, one question of many that remain unanswered is: What will happen to the National Weather Service? Mr. Trump has not yet described his plans for NOAA, whose research is considered essential to the study of climate change, or for the Weather Service, of which it is a part. But this week, staff members participating in Elon Musk’s efforts to downsize the government arrived at the agency, as they have at several others since Mr. Trump’s inauguration. Many of the Trump administration’s early actions have followed a blueprint set out by Project 2025, a policy blueprint created by the conservative Heritage Foundation. The 900-page document, published in 2023, envisioned a significantly pared down federal government, and it may offer clues to the fate of the Weather Service. But first, some history. It started with some shipwrecks. The first national meteorological service in the United States was established in response to tragedy. Across just two years, 1868 and 1869, more than 500 people were killed and more than 3,000 vessels sunk or damaged, many by storms, on the Great Lakes, according to “A Century of Weather Service,” a history of the agency by Patrick Hughes. By February 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant, pushed by calls for a storm warning system, formally established the country’s first meteorological service as part of the U.S. Army. This service was part of the Department of Agriculture and later moved to the Department of Commerce. In 1970, the National Weather Service was officially established when President Richard Nixon created NOAA, aimed at providing “better protection of life and property from natural hazards,” within Commerce. Since then, Congress has considered restructuring NOAA and its offices, which besides the Weather Service include the National Ocean Service; Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research; National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service; National Marine Fisheries Service; and the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. Congress has also considered moving NOAA to another department or making it an independent agency. And for several decades, conservatives in the pursuit of free market goals have advocated increasing the role of the private sector in American weather forecasting. How a forecast works now Today, the Weather Service is a dispersed operation. Many of its more than 4,000 employees work from 122 forecast offices across the country, where they continuously monitor local conditions, issue multiple daily forecasts and release warnings ahead of dangerous weather. Its staff also operates some additional offices with a specialized remit, including one that is tasked with monitoring flooding, units that advise air traffic controllers, and the National Hurricane Center. By its own estimate, the Weather Service collects over six billion weather observations a day. To create a forecast, a meteorologist at a local office may analyze some of those data points, consult weather models and make judgments based on expertise. But the service’s mission goes beyond forecasting. In April 2011, after a large — and accurately predicted — tornado outbreak killed more than 300 people across the South, the department began providing advice to emergency agencies and public officials. It started telling people what to do with the information its forecasts were providing. Rob Dale, the deputy emergency manager for Ingham County, Mich., works closely with the Weather Service. “Michigan State University’s in our jurisdiction, and they send a meteorologist out to every football game here, just to monitor the lightning threat or severe weather threat,” Mr. Dale said. “There’s someone right in the room as we go through the decision-making process.” The Weather Service provides its forecasts and warnings to the public free of charge. NOAA’s observational data, from the agency’s vast network of satellites, buoys, weather balloons and sensors, is also available at no cost; companies like AccuWeather, Google and Apple use it to power their weather products. The Weather Service estimates that its services cost every American resident $4 per year. How the Weather Service could change The chapter of the Project 2025 document that includes proposals for NOAA describes the agency as a “colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry,” and calls for it to be “broken up and downsized.” It proposes that the Weather Service focus on its data-gathering services and “fully commercialize” its forecasting operations. Mr. Trump’s nominee for Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, a billionaire Wall Street executive, told senators during his confirmation hearing in late January that he did not agree with Project 2025’s proposal to dismantle NOAA and eliminate many of its functions. He also said, during questioning from Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, that he would maintain the Weather Service. But in the same exchange with Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Lutnick also appeared to allow for the possibility that the private sector could take up the forecasts that have traditionally been Weather Service work. “I think we can deliver the product more efficiently and less expensively, dramatically less expensively,” he said, “but the outcome of delivering those services should not be changed.” The Weather Service during Mr. Trump’s first term Mr. Trump has shown a preference for the private sector when it comes to weather. During his first term, he nominated Barry Myers, the former chief executive of AccuWeather, one of the nation’s largest private weather forecasters, to lead NOAA. Mr. Myers remained unconfirmed by the Senate for more than two years. He withdrew from the process in 2019, criticizing Democrats who had voiced concerns over his possible conflicts of interest. (In a statement last year, AccuWeather appeared to distance itself from Project 2025’s proposal to fully privatize the weather system. “AccuWeather does not agree with the view, and AccuWeather has not suggested, that the National Weather Service (NWS) should fully commercialize its operations,” its chief executive, Steven R. Smith, said. The public-private partnership approach in forecasting “has saved countless lives,” he said.) Mr. Trump’s influence on the Weather Service was felt elsewhere during his first term. In a 2019 episode that came to be known as “Sharpiegate,” Mr. Trump was at odds with government meteorologists over the forecast for Hurricane Dorian. After he included Alabama on a list of states that he claimed would be hit by the storm, a Weather Service office in Birmingham clarified on social media that the hurricane would not affect the state. Days later, during a news briefing, Mr. Trump brandished an illustration of the storm’s path that had been altered with a thick ****** marker to include Alabama. Bowing to pressure, Neil Jacobs, then NOAA’s acting administrator, issued a statement that supported Mr. Trump’s assertions and criticized the Alabama forecasters for their post. An investigation found Dr. Jacobs had violated the agency’s policy for scientific integrity in issuing the statement. This week, Mr. Trump nominated Dr. Jacobs to the post of NOAA administrator again. The future of weather If confirmed, Dr. Jacobs would lead NOAA at a time when the balance of its public-private partnership may already be in flux. Studies show extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense as a result of climate change. At the same time, weather models driven by artificial intelligence have demonstrated an ability to produce forecasts that are more accurate than traditional weather models. A crop of private companies that use A.I. to build their forecasts is leading the charge to adopt the technology more widely. Companies are now increasingly operating their own weather observation instruments, though many also still use NOAA data. In recent years, NOAA, too, has begun supplementing the data it collects with data purchased from the private sector. In Michigan, Mr. Dale worries that commercializing the Weather Service’s forecasting could set up a pay-to-play system for lifesaving warnings. “If someone says, ‘Hey, if you want a tornado warning for your county, you’re going to have to pay us, $100,000 a year,’ that’s just not viable,” he said. There’s no spare money in most county budgets these days to do something like that.” Louis Uccellini, who was the Weather Service director between 2013 and 2022 and described himself as “one of the biggest supporters” of the private sector’s role in weather, said he believed not all the department’s work could be successfully contracted out. “Public service is not measured by the bottom line,” he said, “but by how well we serve society with the resources allocated by Congress.” Source link #Weather #Service #Change #Trump Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

For Morris Chestnut, R&B Is Therapeutic For Morris Chestnut, R&B Is Therapeutic When Morris Chestnut first heard about “Watson,” a new CBS medical mystery set within the Sherlock Holmes mythology, he was interested. But once he read the script by Craig Sweeny — the show’s creator and one of the writers behind that other Sherlockian CBS series, “Elementary” — he grew even more excited. “He has so many crazy, creative ideas,” Chestnut, 56, said. “So I rushed to it. I said, ‘I have to do it.’” “Watson” opens as Chestnut’s character, Dr. John Watson, is rebuilding his life six months after the death of his dear friend and partner, Sherlock Holmes. Holmes has left Watson a parting gift: a medical clinic, in Pittsburgh, devoted to curing rare disorders. “He’s treating patients, and while he’s treating those patients, he somewhat also has to treat himself,” Chestnut said. Studying to be a doctor is stressful, but so is studying to sound like one, and it requires a certain level of sacrifice — especially for an N.F.L. addict. “When I’m doing the show, I literally have to pick one game on Sunday,” Chestnut said of learning the medical jargon that flows like honey from Watson’s mouth. “In the middle of commercial breaks, I’m looking at the script.” “But the guys who are playing, they’re making a living and I have to make mine,” he said in a video call from New York before talking about the gym memberships and pickup basketball games that keep him camera-ready while he indulges in his favorite food group: dessert. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. Meditation First Thing in the Morning I go to bed early and I wake up very early, and it’s good for me to have that quiet time to myself before the day gets started. I do a lot of work before people are even up. It’s just essential to who I am as a person. 3 Gym Memberships My normal gym doesn’t open until 5 a.m. So I have a membership at a gym that’s open 24 hours. Then there’s another gym where I go to play basketball. I have three memberships that all serve their own purpose. Pickup Games When I get on the treadmill, when I get on a StairMaster, it’s my discipline that pushes me through. When I’m playing basketball, I’m just having fun. I’m hanging out with the guys. I’m talking mess to the guys. I’m getting the cardio without feeling like work. N.F.L. Season That’s my favorite time of the year. On Sundays, I’m literally watching football from 10 o’clock in the morning till 8 o’clock at night. Football was my first love before I loved girls as a kid. I played Pop Warner. I used to sit at home and watch Howard Cosell on “Monday Night Football.” I call myself a football loser. R&B Not only do I love it — it’s soothing to me — but it’s also therapeutic. It’s helpful in my work because it triggers thoughts, triggers memories, triggers emotions. It’s such a challenging industry, and music played a huge factor in me going forward because there were some love songs that would have a lot of positive affirmations in them. I used to sing them to myself to keep myself going. Dessert I have a huge, huge sweet tooth, and when I’m working and I know I’m going to have a shirtless scene, I’m more disciplined with my eating. Most people are picking the restaurants by the entree. I’m picking the restaurant by the lava cake. Crime TV My wife and I have very different viewing tastes. But the one thing that we both love to watch together are crime docuseries. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen every single version of “Forensic Files.” And we’re always watching “Dateline.” I don’t like the ones that don’t have a conclusion. I can’t invest an hour or two to not have a payoff. Sweatsuits for Different Occasions I love being comfortable. If I’m not on a set, my daily life will require a sweatsuit when going to the gym. I have a slightly more elevated sweatsuit for when I’m running errands. And then I have an even more elevated suit, like this one, when I’m doing interviews or I’m traveling on the plane. Learning a ‘Second’ Language It is so intense doing an hour drama, especially a character such as Watson, where he has to spew a lot of medical jargon. I can say a word before lunch perfectly. But sometimes we go off into the late hours at night and it’s basically another language for me. Family Time, Screens Allowed My kids are 27 and 26. They’re figuring their life out and what they want to do for the next 10 years. So we kind of have to balance that. My son is also an Eagles fan, so we’ll watch that together. My daughter, she’s more of a horror movie fan, so we’ll watch those together. On her birthday, she called me and said, “I want to see a movie.” So I’m thinking, “I don’t recall any horror movies being out.” And of course it was “Wicked.” Source link #Morris #Chestnut #Therapeutic Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Final week of Fringe World 2025 frivolity with highlights galore including Elixir Revived Final week of Fringe World 2025 frivolity with highlights galore including Elixir Revived The Fringe World 2025 fun is not slowing down as this year’s festival somersaults into its final week. Just ask the cast of Head First Acrobats. The Fringe World circus staple have returned to Perth for the second half of the festival season with Elixir Revived. The internationally renowned artists behind hit shows GODZ, Railed and PreHysterical are back with an updated version of their show that started it all, Elixir. The remake is a highly entertaining blend of physical comedy, raunchy humour and athletic ability as four scientists with chiselled abs attempt to create the elixir of life. “Elixir Revived features, without a doubt, some of our most dangerous stunts to date, plus our wacky sense of humour, which audiences have come to know and love,” co-founder, breakdancer and internationally acclaimed acrobat Thomas Gorham said. Street performer-turned contemporary circus artist, co-founder and Elixir Revived host Cal Harris added: “Audiences can expect everything they love about the original, but this time around we’ve gone *******, bolder and, dare we say, sexier?” Those looking for more laughs still have time to catch comedians including Wil Anderson, Alex Ward, Emma Krause, Amy Hetherington, Gillian Cosgriff and Michael Hing. Camera IconHead First Acrobats has returned to Fringe World with an updated version of their show Elixir Revived. Credit: Justin Benson-Cooper/The Sunday Times Music offerings range from Adam Hall’s Juke Joint and Lisa Woodcock’s Millennial: Hits Of The 90s & 00s to Shake It Off: The Ultimate Taylor Swift Experience. There is still time to get Jealousss with Briefs Factory, and Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett has added an additional week of shows by popular demand until February 23. For something a little more visual-arts-oriented, Rocky Bay has partnered with Fringe World for a third year to showcase Delicatessen, an art exhibition celebrating artists with disability. Fringe World 2025 is on until February 16. Program and tickets at fringeworld.com.au. Source link #Final #week #Fringe #World #frivolity #highlights #galore #including #Elixir #Revived Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

A Swearing Expert Discusses the State of Profanity A Swearing Expert Discusses the State of Profanity Cursing is coursing through society. Words once too blue to publicly utter have become increasingly commonplace. “Language is just part of the whole shift to a more casual lifestyle,” said Timothy Jay, a professor emeritus of psychology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Mass. Dr. Jay has spent a career studying the use of profanity, from what motivates it to the ways in which it satisfies, signals meaning and offends. Although officially retired, he has continued to edit studies on profanity and he recently offered an expert opinion in an ongoing legal dispute in Michigan over whether the phrase “Let’s go Brandon” (a euphemism used to denigrate former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.) should be reasonably interpreted as “profane.” (It should not, Dr. Jay opined.) Dr. Jay posits that the increasingly casual nature of the spoken word derives in part from the way people communicate on social media. One study, published in 2014 by other researchers in the field, found that curse words on Twitter, now known as X, appeared in 7.7 percent of posts, with profanity representing about 1 in every 10 words on the platform. That compared to a swearing rate of 0.5 to 0.7 percent in spoken language, the study found. If that data troubles you, Dr. Jay has some thoughts on how to dial back the profanity. F*@%-free February, anyone? Tis interview has been condensed and edited for clarity, and scrubbed of some of the vernacular that Dr. Jay conceded he regularly uses on the golf course. Why does social media contribute to more casual use of language? People are remote, so they can be aggressive without any physical retaliation. By and large, you’re anonymous, so there’s no personal consequence. It’s also part of a larger shift to a more casual lifestyle. What kids are wearing to school these days would have been disgraceful in my day. Is that a problem — not the clothes, the swearing? Our culture is constantly evolving and will continue to evolve. One place it is a problem is the way that women are increasingly attacked online and harassed. So you don’t really see this development as positive or negative? Slang is made to confront authority and to create a code that identifies one as an in-group member. Misuse of slang means you are an outsider. Slang must change with time. The casualness of language coexists with the casualness of clothing styles, workplace behaviors, music lyrics, television content, table manners, et cetera, which have trended in general to a more relaxed state post-World War II, especially notable in the 1960s. You’re saying that curse words that people once avoided they now say regularly. For years, I asked people to rank swear words on a scale of one to 10 of which words were the worst. A five would be “damn” or “hell.” That was the middle range. A hundred years ago you couldn’t have used them on the radio; now they’re in the comic strips in the newspaper. What ranks as a 1? “Sugar.” What about other alternatives to longstanding curse words? Can I run a few by you? Go ahead. “Fudge” — satisfying? Not to me. I hear a lot of people say “flipping” or “freaking.” Which one do you prefer? I like “frickin’” — I’ve used, “Shut the frickin’ door!” What do you like about that? It’s similarity to … [expletive]. So if something is phonetically similar, that makes it satisfying? It’s how it feels in your entire body — an autonomic nervous-system reaction to hearing someone say [expletive] or saying [expletive] yourself. It raises your pulse, heart rate, breathing rate all above the use of a nonoffensive word such as “calendar.” We recorded skin-conductance tests that demonstrated that taboo words produce a more emotional reaction than nontaboo words. The word arouses us in knowing that we are going to say it and continues to arouse us even after speaking. Do these words provoke physical aggression? My research group has recorded over 10,000 people swearing in public. Not once have we seen these usages turn into aggression or violence. Most swearing is casual, conversational and pretty harmless. At the same time, we are more sensitive to language issues surrounding ******* harassment, racial-ethnic-gender discrimination, verbal abuse and threatening language than in the past. What draws us to a particular word? It’s personal. One’s psychological history with hearing and saying a word mainly in childhood, and then the consequence of using the word again, brings about the feelings previously associated with the word. It’s social, meaning the words that are important emotionally not only depend on the speaker’s psychological relationship with the word but also the value and valence of the word within a speaker’s community. And it’s physical. Does that suggest that euphemisms may not satisfy, and that therefore we can’t curb our cursing? The key to breaking a habit is being aware that you do it and then trying to circumvent that. So you can change the pattern should you wish to? Yes. If you think about how memory works, what you’ve done is you’ve activated the new word in your brain. And so by activating “freakin’” or “sugar,” you’re making that more salient. In other words, with practice, you can diminish the potency of the curse word and strengthen the lure of the euphemism. Yes, but you have to be aware of both pieces and that one of them has natural salience. Recently, I was watching my grandson, a mogul skier, when he went off course. And I just said, “dang.” He’s 18 years old, and I try not to swear around him. But I have to think about it, especially when I play golf. From where you sit in retirement, do you feel that swearing research is in good hands? I gave a keynote speech to a group of international scholars meeting on swearing and cursing in Cologne, Germany, in 2015, two years before I retired. I was 65 years old at the time and most of the speakers were in their 30s and 40s. I realized that there was a new generation continuing to study taboo words in a manner that I pioneered in the 1970s. It was about time to step aside and let them have the glory. Source link #Swearing #Expert #Discusses #State #Profanity Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Here’s What To Know About Elon Musk’s DOGE: Democratic States Sue Trump Over Treasury Access – Forbes Here’s What To Know About Elon Musk’s DOGE: Democratic States Sue Trump Over Treasury Access – Forbes Here’s What To Know About Elon Musk’s DOGE: Democratic States Sue Trump Over Treasury Access ForbesJudge Halts DOGE Access to Treasury Payment Systems The New York TimesHere Are All The Major Lawsuits Against Trump And Musk—As 19 States Sue Over DOGE’s Treasury Access ForbesWhy privacy laws are the tip of the legal spear against Musk and Trump CNNTreasury was warned DOGE access to payments marked an ‘insider threat’ The Washington Post Source link #Heres #Elon #Musks #DOGE #Democratic #States #Sue #Trump #Treasury #Access #Forbes Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Marvel Future Fight has just released their Captain America: Brave New World-themed update Marvel Future Fight has just released their Captain America: Brave New World-themed update The Captain America: Brave New World-themed update is now available Add characters from the movie to your squad Take on new challenges in the World Boss: Legend+ mode With the release of Marvel Studios’ next film, Captain America: Brave New World, around the corner, Netmarble has dropped a themed update for Marvel Future Fight. The superhero fighter welcomes fresh content in the form of new characters, uniforms, as well as a bunch of new improvements. To kick things off, Falcon (Joaquín Torres) and Leader have joined the lineup, while Captain America (Sam Wilson) and Red Hulk now have new uniforms reflecting their on-screen appearances. Several characters are also gaining tier upgrades, with Falcon’s Tier-4 Striker Skill and Leader’s Tier-3 Ultimate Skill enhancing their combat abilities. As for the other characters, Red Hulk and Red She-Hulk have received Awakened and Transcended Potential upgrades, adding more depth to their skill sets. Moving on, A new Timeline Quest event is now live, featuring a mission-based questline where you can choose objectives and earn rewards. If you’re wondering how all of these heroes stack up against the rest of the roster, here’s our Marvel Future Fight tier list of all the superheroes! If you’re looking for a challenge, the update also introduces World Boss: Legend+ ****** Dwarf & Maw. The battle pits you against ****** Dwarf’s brute strength and Ebony Maw’s calculated obstructions, requiring both power and strategy to overcome. Higher difficulty floors drop Emblems of ****** Dwarf and Ebony Maw, while clearing each level for the first time grants valuable rewards. Several quality-of-life improvements have also been introduced. A Try Again feature has been added to Normal Alliance Battles, allowing for quicker retries with notifications about previously used heroes. The Artifact Selector now makes it easier to find Acquired and Equipped Artifacts, and hero search results have been refined for better navigation. Celebrate the arrival of the new movie by downloading Marvel Future Fight on your preferred link below. It is free-to-play with in-app purchases. Visit the official website for more information. Source link #Marvel #Future #Fight #released #Captain #America #Brave #Worldthemed #update Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Cawdor, New South Wales: Woman killed, another injured after lightning strike hits tree Cawdor, New South Wales: Woman killed, another injured after lightning strike hits tree A woman has been killed and another injured after lightning struck a tree in Sydney’s southwest. Source link #Cawdor #South #Wales #Woman #killed #injured #lightning #strike #hits #tree Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Bill Gates says Steve Jobs told him he should’ve taken acid as it would have made Microsoft’s products look better Bill Gates says Steve Jobs told him he should’ve taken acid as it would have made Microsoft’s products look better Bill Gates was told by Apple founder Steve Jobs he should have dropped acid to help make Microsoft products more interesting. Gates said taking recreational substances dulled his mind. One might imagine that Bill Gates’s interactions with the late Steve Jobs revolved around emerging technologies, talent management, and economic outlooks—but it turns out hallucinogenic drugs were also a theme. According to Gates, the Apple co-founder believed the Microsoft co-founder should have used acid when designing his computer products. The billionaire tech titan worth $164 billion told The Independent: “Steve Jobs once said that he wished I’d take acid because then maybe I would have had more taste in my design of my products.” Jobs was considered a visionary who revolutionized product design in the 1990s and 00s and elevated its importance in the tech industry through the launch of products like the iMac, iPod, iPad, and iPhone. Meanwhile, Microsoft was busy building its cloud-computing software—still a major bastion of the $3.1 trillion company to this day—and rolling out office-friendly services like Word and Excel. It seems that such innovations—and how they were subsequently presented to customers—didn’t impress Jobs much. Gates said he replied to Jobs’ jibe with: “Look, I got the wrong batch.” Gates explained: “I got the coding batch, and this guy got the marketing-design batch, so good for him. Because his talents and mine—other than being kind of an energetic leader, and pushing the limits—they didn’t overlap much.” The duo had something of a love-hate relationship while Jobs was alive, but Gates clearly admires the talents of his counterpart, adding: “[Jobs] wouldn’t know what a line of code meant, and his ability to think about design and marketing and things like that… I envy those skills. I’m not in his league.” Jobs made his thoughts on Gates’ missed opportunity public, though it’s not clear if he ever addressed them directly to the Seattle-born Gates. In 2011, Jobs told author Walter Isaacson: “[Gates would] be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.” Gates on drug experiments in his youth It seems that Jobs was unaware that Gates, 69, had used recreational drugs in his youth, with the father of three confirming he smoked ********** in high school. The interest was “not because it did anything interesting,” Gates told The Independent, but because “I thought maybe I would look cool and some girl would think that was interesting. It didn’t succeed, so I gave it up.” The interest in recreational substances, he added, stemmed from optimism: “I’m willing to take risks, I tried a lot of things.” However, when Gates began working on Microsoft in earnest alongside Paul Allen in his 20s, he stopped taking drugs. “Another thing about my personality is that I like my mind to work and be very logical,” Gates explained. “So I stopped … because it made my mind sloppy, either during or the day afterwards.” This story was originally featured on Fortune.com Source link #Bill #Gates #Steve #Jobs #told #shouldve #acid #Microsofts #products Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

U.S. judge declines to block Elon Musk’s DOGE from Labor Department systems U.S. judge declines to block Elon Musk’s DOGE from Labor Department systems Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla | Via Reuters A federal judge on Friday declined to block Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting department from accessing the U.S. Department of Labor’s systems, an initial setback for the government employee unions resisting his efforts to shrink the federal bureaucracy. The temporary ruling by U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., is the first step in a lawsuit against the Labor Department by one of the largest U.S. labor unions, which alleges billionaire Musk could obtain sensitive information about investigations into his own companies and competitors by accessing government computer systems. Bates ruled that “although the Court harbors concerns about defendants’ alleged conduct,” the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) had not shown it was harmed by the Labor Department’s actions. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement that the decision was “a setback, but not a defeat,” and that the union would provide more evidence to support its claims. A Department of Labor spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent late on Friday. President Donald Trump has deputized Musk, the world’s richest person and owner of electric vehicle company Tesla, space technology company SpaceX and other businesses, with leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to identify fraud and waste in the government. Musk’s efforts have alarmed lawmakers and advocacy groups who say he is overstepping his authority by seeking to dismantle agencies responsible for critical government programs and fire federal workers en masse. Another group of federal employee unions and retirees has sued the Treasury Department to block what it says is the unlawful transmission of sensitive payment records to DOGE personnel. Treasury temporarily agreed on Wednesday not to give further access while the case plays out. In the Labor Department lawsuit, the AFL-CIO asked the court to block what it said was Musk’s imminent plan to access department systems. The union, which represents roughly 800,000 government workers, said that would potentially give Musk access to non-public information from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s probes into SpaceX, Tesla and his tunneling company, The Boring Company, as well as investigations into his competitors. The union also said that in the absence of court intervention, DOGE could access Bureau of Labor Statistics data about the health of the economy and sensitive information about government employees, including the identities of those who have filed worker compensation claims or sought protection for wage and hour complaints. The White House has said Musk will recuse himself from matters in which he has a conflict of interest. As a so-called special government employee, he is subject to some but not all conflict-of-interest and ethics rules for federal workers. Musk’s rapid takeover of U.S. government agencies has enabled the South African-born businessman to exert unprecedented control over America’s 2.2-million-member federal workforce and begin a dramatic reshaping of government. Musk has already moved to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development and says USAID is canceling scores of government consulting contracts and underutilized leases. Source link #U.S #judge #declines #block #Elon #Musks #DOGE #Labor #Department #systems Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]